IIM Indore - The interview

I reached the interview center a good 5 minutes after the expected reporting time of 1:15 P.M following an amazing race against time. It wasn't a race actually.Bangalore's traffic never allows you that luxury. I was happy, though, that the selection process started only after I reached and that no one was waiting . After the initial round of roll calls we were ushered into a room (incidentally the same room that I was interviewed in for IIM Shillong) where we were told that the selection process would entail a written ability test and a personal interview. In the WAT we had to summarize a given piece of literature within a given word limit followed by having to write an argument based essay.I was satisfied with the way I summarized the passage but thought I could have done better with the essay. We were allowed a total of 40 minutes to complete the WAT.

We were then asked to wait outside and told that we would be called in in random order. Barely had I gone out and settled down that I was called in to the room again .I was the first in the lot to be interviewed.I walked in confidently, beamed a smile at them and wished them a 'Good Morning' for which a I heard a 'Good Afternoon' from the interviewers. 'Good Afternoon' I corrected myself. I handed them over my documents and they asked me to take a seat. Just as I was about to do so I was asked if I am okay taking the interview right away as I hadn't got much time to settle down after the WAT.I said I was fine and off we were !

Written below in conversational style is an account of what transpired in the next 15-20 minutes.I shall refer to the interviewers as I1,I2,I3 and myself as Kunal

I2: Kunal, tell us about yourself
[As I had practiced it before I introduced myself and started narrating my achievements in reverse chronological order, till the point I was interrupted]

I1: All this we know from your SOP. Tell us something we don't know about.
[I sensed an opportunity here]
Kunal: I would like to mention that I want to pursue management so that I can start a business of my own in the education sector. Besides,I am also considering pursuing research in economics as an alternate career path. As a hobby I like playing pocket billiards and like writing my blog
[Not that I hadn't mentioned the above in my written SOP, yet I thought it would be better to accentuate upon the same]

I1: What does a blog help you achieve?
Kunal:It is like a personal website.I helps you to stay connected and express you opinion.

I1: Can you write to someone else's blog?
Kunal: A blog consists of many posts and readers can comment on the same . For example to my latest post on hindi movie "Saat khoon maaf" (a deliberate advertisement attempt) readers can post their remark after reading it.

I1: Can you give an example of how a blog has been used appropriately to convey a message in the past?
[I had started thinking of the example while he was finishing the question]
Kunal:Amitabh Bachchan when verbally attacked by the Shiv Sena with the allegation that he was not grateful enough to the city of Mumbai used his blog to explain how could he possibly disrespect Mumbai since the city had given him his identity.

I3: How many people do you think would have read his blog?
Kunal: He is a superstar . He would be having a large fan base reading his Blog

I3: But do you think that the readership would compare favorably to that if he were to express the same opinion in the newspaper?
Kunal: The newspaper readership would ideally be greater . For your Blog to be read you have to advertise it sufficiently.
[Not entirely sure what the purpose of that question was, though]

I2: Kunal , you mentioned pursuing economics major as an alternate career. How were you introduced to the subject?
Kunal: We had Principles of Management and Basic economics in semester 7. I took a liking to economics.
[One of the interviewers looked at my S7 grade sheet and checked my score in economics.]

I2: So what did you learn there?
Kunal:We were introduced to the basic theorems on supply and demand and how to determine the equilibrium price of a product.I also learnt the laws of diminishing returns and the topics like the functionalities of a central bank

I1: Central Bank. OK,what are the different types of banks that you know of?
Kunal: There are retail ,commercial and investment bank like Goldman Sachs ....
[was interrupted]

I1:Do you know what a chartered bank is?
Kunal: No I wouldn't be aware

I2: So how do banks control money supply ?
[Paused to think]
Kunal: Lets imagine that The government wants to build a flyover in Bangalore. It needs money which it can obtain through its own revenue which it collected by taxing people's income, through the issue of bonds or by borrowing money from a bank. Lets say it does borrow money from the bank. The bank in turn would lend this money from its deposits from common people . After the flyover is built, the government would then tax the people till the point the expenditure of the project is met

I1: Can you and I open an account with a central bank? What's the term associated with the overall money supply in the country?
Kunal: Common people cannot have an account with the reserve bank.Not sure of the actual term but the reserve bank does control money supply through the control of interest rates

I3:How?
[Answered this and related question particularly w.r.t inflation and how a rise in the interest rate would control the money supply and there by control inflation]

I1: Kunal, do you think other banks would have an account with the reserve bank?
Kunal: The reserve bank is the lender of last resort. In case the banks are in a crisis they would seek money from the reserve bank. hence they would need an account

I3: What other reasons can you think of?
Kunal: Banks are meant to keep a certain percentage of money with the reserve bank determined by the Cash reserve ratio. For this too they would need an account

I3:Cash reserve ratio and what else?
Kunal : There is the SLR which is the section of asset which banks need to maintain as liquid assets.
[There were a few questions on this especially when I mentioned that Gold could be treated as a liquid asset as it would have a particular value in the market.Not all my answers were outright convincing,though]

I3:Kunal, i see that you worked on a project on consuming settlement information from clearing agents. What are clearing agents and what was the project about?
[I explained them what clearing agents are and provided an overview of what my work on this project encompassed]

I3: Clearing agents settle cash correct? Who settles the stock?
Kunal:My understanding is that a clearing agent settles both cash and stock?

I3: Sure?
Kunal:M mm. That's my understanding.

I3:Could you explain this a little more. With a example?
[I explained them with a trader buying 100 IBM shares and it settling after T+2 in the American settling cycle concept ]

I3: What then is the difference between a custodian and a clearing agent?
[Explained them per my understanding]

I3: In the Indian context, who is the clearing agent?
Kunal: I think SEBI is the Clearing agent

I3: Isn't SEBI the custodian? What does SEBI stand for?
Kunal: Stock exchange board of India. I am not sure if it is the custodian.But I think SEBI is responsible for all settlements

I1: Kunal what's D.S.P? What is this Project you did in I.I.T Madras?
[Apologized for not expanding the acronym in the resume. Explained them the utility of the same]

I2:Kunal how does a radar work?
Kunal: There are radiations emitted from the target which are captured by the say the main aircraft. The speed of the waves and the time taken helps calculate the distance of the target.

I2: But this is in 2D. How do you calculate the height?
[Wow! didn't see that coming]
Kunal: Antennae also register the angle at which signals are received. This helps them calculate the altitude

I1: OK Kunal thank you

I2: That's it . Thank you

[I smiled at them. Just before I was about to tell them a "Thank you" I was asked ]

I1: Any question for us?
[Paused for a little while]
Kunal: Yes. I read in your website that IIM Indore specializes in a field Social business and related matters. Could you tell me a little more?

I1: [Laughed] Every IIM has got something special about it, so does IIM Ind0re. Anything else?
And a few people have asked me about this. Were you specifically told to ask this question?Did you join any coaching institute ?

Kunal: No, i was told by no one about this question.I read it in the website.I did not take any coaching for interview but for my CAT preparation I had joined TIME

I1,I2,I3: OK Kunal. Thank you

Kunal: Thank you very much

7 khoon maaf- - Has Bollywood finally come of age?

Inspired by a 4-star rating by the Times of India and hoping that the rating will be justified by the quality of the movie I stepped out on a Saturday evening with a few friends to witness the murderous saga unfold in celluloid in front of me.

To begin with I had intentionally kept my expectations from the movie at a minimum because of 2 reasons:
The movie was an adaptation of Ruskin Bond's "Suzanne's 7 husbands" and Indian movies have generally not been great at pulling of a good movie portrayal of a book (except say, 3 idiots)
The promos had suggested very little about whether the movie would be a thriller and on the face of it , the story appeared to be rather predictable


So there I sat eyes, focused on the 70 mm screen that began by showing an outright 'ugly' Priyanka seemingly blowing her brains off . The story unfolded in a slow ,sincere way with the narrator doing a good job of capturing essential moments of grief, anguish, frustration and lust.
Since I was not completely aware of the entire star- cast I was made to keep guessing as to who the next husband is going to be and more interestingly - what the reason of his death would be.

The plot ,beginning on an unclear note, managed to keep the suspense alive as death after death one kept wondering how the next one could be in any way different from the previous one. The truth is all the murders were necessitated reasons so different that you couldn't help but watch in silent appreciation of the brilliant portrayal of the same in the movie. And what's more ,its not that one murder was completely unrelated to the previous one. They never were water tight compartments . Their lay the masterclass of the director. The gradual flow of the story line never gave the audience a sense of discontinuity . The director should also be given credit for the way he crafted the movie by beautifully linking it with real world happenings at different points in the story. Thus a Priyanka's affection for a Muslim husband during the Babri Masjid demolition and India testing nuclear weapons at the same time as a Russian spy entered Priyanka's life promising "Amar Prem" captures amazingly the director's interest in keeping the movie synchronized.

One cannot undermine the centrality of Priyanka in the movie. The movie is singularly about her struggle to find true love and her response to situations when she is cheated.In the same movie, one experiences a myriad of feelings for a women whose make up was rather unbecoming of a former Miss World. She looks dark,unclean, chubby on the face and flabby at the waist.Despite being worshipped as a deity by the ever-so-lustful Anu Kapoor, the 'Madame' did not exactly get the temperature soaring. And the best part is - she didn't have to. This was not a 'Dostana' movie.This was a movie of a girl dismissed by fate to be cheated every time and it is with this understanding should the audience view her work. Her acting was definitely of the highest order and this will undoubtedly go down as amongst her best movies. In one single movie the audience is made to feel sympathy,anger,helplessness,affection,hatred and admiration for the same person for different acts. She rose up to complete each act with amazing poise and dedication.Hats off to her!

Not to mention the star cast. There were at least four national awards winners in Naseeruddin Shah,Konkona Sen,Irfan Khan and Priyanka herself. The movie had the exuberance of youth in Neil and John's performances while having the calmness of experience in ModhuDa's care. Each actor had a distinct role to perform which he did exceedingly well.

What will perhaps make the movie be appreciated even more is its climax. The movie ends on a tentative note with it remaining unclear as to which was the 7th murder (and for Christ's sake it wasn't Jesus Christ). While most viewers were getting up from their seats, the last few unexpected scenes suggested that the last sin could either have been Priyanka herself or her dependable help Usha Uthup who she never intended to kill .The transformation of the sometimes ferociously vengeful women to a nun who surrendered herself to the will of the Almighty would strike a cord with the hardest of hearts. The women never killed 'coz she was maniacal. She did it because she was too unfortunate to be loved and just too rich to be unloved. By surrendering to the will of the Almighty and confessing to one's sins irrespective of whether they were pardonable, Priyanka brings the human touch to her otherwise wronged and ,therefore, brutal self.

Yes, the movie had its short comings. It was dull and boring at times with conversations sometimes moving at snail's pace. The songs except for ''Daaaarling" weren't great and 'Oh mama' was a disgrace to say the least.The darkness in the movie may not have gone down well with a lot of looking-for-fun audience and the depiction of violent sex may have been overdone.But one has to understand the deeper connotation of every scene as to why they were made the way they were. To me it is more a question of perception . That an attempt was made by an Indian film-maker to make a movie that is so rich in meaning may not have gone down too well with the otherwise "west is best" Indian audience who may lap up a slow movie like 'Prestige' with much appreciation but would crticize an almost heroic attempt like this one. So what of the movie was an adaptation of an English novel?The writer is Ruskin Bond - a person as Indian as any of us.

To the larger debate as to whether Bollywood has come off age? Well that's a tough one. A string of movies out of the tried and tested formulae has surely given Bollywood a shot in the arm but we still remain a country where lover's would end up giving a damn about people that care about them in favour of their "First Crush" (Think Band Baaj Baraat!).

All in all- well done Vijay Bharadwaj

IIM Shillong - The interview

19th Feb 2011 ,9 a.m is when the entire process of selection to India's 7th I.I.M. was going to begin and it started not much later. Prior to this I had made myself comfortable by interacting with other interviewees.

At about 5 minutes past 9:00 , 8 people, including myself ,were called into a room to kick start the selection process with a case based G.D. We were all given a case study and were allowed 10 minutes to read the subject and make a draft of our interpretation of the case study and possible solutions in English - to be composed of continuous sentences and sequenced paragraphs. We were then given 15 minutes to analyze the case from various perspectives and reach a consensus. The G.D. was pretty active and there were quite a few good points made by fellow participants. I thought I performed rather well after having initiated the discussion.
We were then asked to wait outside the room and were told that we would be called in for the interview in the same sequence in which we were seated. I was No.3 in the sequence so after about a 45- minute wait I was called in. I went in rather confidently to the room were a 3-member interview panel was waiting. Written below in conversational style is an account of what transpired in the next 15-20 minutes :

I have referred to the interviewers as I1,I2 and I3 and myself as Kunal (obviously) :

[I handover my resume, document and certificates to the panel]

I2: Kunal ,please be seated
[I sat down]
I3: So how many years on work experience do you have?
Kunal: I joined Goldman in June 2009. I have about 20 months of work experience till date

I1: Tell us about yourself, Kunal
[I started answering that question in reverse chronological order,starting with where I work,my achievements at work place, my achievements in college and then in school. But in all the enthusiasm, I forgot to mention why I wanted to do an MBA:(]

I1:What do you do in your spare time, when you are not working?
Kunal: I like writing my blogs and compering is something that I am good that. I have compered
in several valedictory functions and in the Indian Independence day celebrations at workplace in New York.In college i used to play billiards ,basketball and TT (Though there was not so much TT :))

I1: So you are from Orissa, correct? What's happening in your state these days?
Kunal:Recently the collector of Orissa's Malkangiri district was abducted by the Maoists and the government is in negotiation with the Maoists to have him released

I1: Where, in Orissa, is Maoism prevalent ?
Kunal: It is mostly prevalent in the south western and western part of the state, which are densely forested and where government schemes have not made inroads . In districts like Kalahandi and Malkangiri.

I1:Who do you hold responsible for this menace?
Kunal : Part of the responsibility lies with the people who took up Maoism, as violence is no way to solve any issue. The other half of the blame lies with the government as they have done little to lessen the sense on alienation which these people from non-developed areas have felt

I1: And what else is going on?
Kunal: There is the POSCO deal which recently got environmental clearance from the Environment minister Jairam Ramesh and which currently is being met with widespread opposition from the local-ites

I3: Do you support the deal?
Kunal: Yes I do. This is the largest proposed FDI in India. It is meant to change the face of Orissa by providing employment to a lot of people, and by not allowing this to go ahead we will not be sending the correct signals to investors abroad.

I1: But then why is there so much opposition?
Kunal: The government's track record w.r.t rehabilitation has not been horrible (Gosh! I should not have used that word) which is why people have little faith that any good will come out of this. I think the responsibility is now with the govt., who have to allot the displaced people land around the facilities and give them a chance to benefit from the development. They should be allowed to work in these facilities.This will give them a chance to grow.
[I was asked a few more questions with the panel firmly putting forth their views firmly in favor of the victims and I reciting pro-development slogans]

I3:About your response to the ethical dilemma question. Lets say you are going abroad and you need the Driver's license ASAP, would you still not take a bride?
[For the question on ethical dilemma, I had stated how I did not bribe on my way to securing a driving license. I had preferred to wait 2 months and go the whole nice yards to procure the license legitimately]
Kunal: I still would not bribe.I would take the license in the foreign country or wait till I come back again and apply for the license again.

I3:You did not get my question. You won't get a license abroad and you absolutely must have the license in a short time:
Kunal: It is a question about integrity . I still will not bribe. [My tone was morally upright]

I2: Kunal. Signal compression,Statistical Communication,Number theory,ADSP, Spread spectrum- these are subjects from the final year of you college. Do you remember any of these?
[Phew! where did that come from? I was kind of hoping I don't get asked on these but then there it was]
Kunal: Well, not as well as I would have a couple of years ago, but I do remember them

I2: What did you study in number theory?
Kunal: There are a set of numbers and then there is another set say prime numbers. Number theory deals with figuring what the quotient and remainder is when when one set divides another

I3: A whole semester went in you figuring out which number divides which?
Kunal:No. I meant, there were other things but divisibility was central to the course.

I3: Tell us a few theorems.
[Oh dear God! Where was I gonna get that from? Luckily I could think of a divisibility theorem which I had used during CAT preparations and then there was the ever-so-dependable 'Fermat's last theorem']

I2: What did you study you study in statistical communication?
[I did not particularly like that subject]
Kunal: It is not a subject I was great at but it is a subject that deals with random signals

I3: What is a random signal?
[I tried answering that question using fundamental signal theory - an answer which I am sure would have left the purists in electronics embarrassed. The gentlemen on the other side did not seem fully convinced ,either]

I2: How would you convert a digital signal to an analog signal?
Kunal: There are ADC and DAC's available to make such conversions ...

I2: Can you draw me the circuit diagram of one??
[I was handed a sheet of paper and a pen.Various configurations of capacitors and resistors came to my mind.Could not think as to which combination would come to my rescue. By the grace of God almighty , I remembered a basic configuration and the professor nodded in agreement. Thank goodness !!]

I1: Thanks Kunal. That should be it.
Kunal: Thank you. It was a pleasure.

I2,I3: Thank you.

The G.D seemed to have gone through better than the interview. Would give myself a 50 per cent chance of making it through, though :)